Hashemites, Egyptians and Saudis: the tripartite struggle for the pilgrimage in the shadow of Ottoman defeat

Most analyses of the fate of the Hijaz and the Muslim pilgrimage after the First World War have focused on the struggle between Hashemites and Saudis. But in actuality the Egyptians were heavily involved in this dispute, for the Hijaz had been for centuries part of a geopolitical system based on the Red Sea littoral states. Indeed, this was a tripartite struggle, which afforded much more room for maneuver than a simple bilateral one. This article covers the maneuvers of all three parties, demonstrating how they tried to gain possession of the hajj, and all that meant for world Islamic leadership.